Experimental Nowcast estimates downtick in job openings in February 2024

The Conference Board continues to experiment with a data series that aims to predict JOLTS job openings data ahead of a release day. This data series leverages a proprietary database of job boards using Lightcast microdata to gauge the extent of job openings within a variety of labor markets. The Conference Board is continually monitoring the performance of the experimental data series against out-of-sample releases of JOLTS openings data and deriving insights to improve the models.

The next JOLTS release is April 2, 2024, which estimates job openings for February 2024. Prior to the January 2024 data release on March 6, 2024, The Conference Board estimated job openings to be 8.81 million at the national level seasonally adjusted. Due to tweaks to the modeling process since then, and downward benchmark revisions to JOLTS openings data from 2019 forward last month, The Conference Board has downgraded its estimation of job openings at the national level in February 2024 to 8.79 million.

The Conference Board will continue to monitor the estimation performance of the experimental data series at the national level and across industries, states and MSAs.